acted alone in the bombings. law enforcement officials say they believe the two were persuaded by their own extremist beliefs and not any terrorist groups. nbc's pete williams has the latest on this case. >> reporter: as dzhokhar tsarnaev lies under guard at a boston hospital now upgraded to fair condition, federal officials say he's told interrogators he and his older brother came up with the plot on their own because they believed the u.s. wars in iraq and afghanistan were an attack on islam. officials say he claims the instructions for making a bomb came from al qaeda's online magazine "inspire" which contained a formula that was similar to make the bombs in boston. an employee at a fireworks company says that records show tamerlan tsarnaev bought fireworks at a store in new hampshire in february. >> it's a little disturbing and unsettling that i had any

interaction with him. he was an everyday customer, so i dealt with him the way i would any other customer off the street. >> reporter: several online instructions including the one in "inspire" recommended using the contents of fireworks as a bomb component. 5,000 miles away, fbi agents were in the russian province of dagostan to interview the parents. the mother insists her sons could not be terrorists. >> what's happened is a terrible thing but i know that my kids have nothing to do with this. i know it. i am mother. >> that was nbc's pete williams reporting. charges against the mississippi man accused of sending ricin-laced letters to president obama and mississippi senator wicker has been dropped. now investigators are looking for answers at the home of a new suspect. tracie potts has the latest. good morning. >> reporter: good morning. turned out they had been feuding for years over something neither can quite remember. nevertheless, hazmat teams showed up at the home of everett

duskie who says he's also innocent, doesn't even know how to make ricin. this after paul kevin curtis spent a week behind bars. he's now been released, all charges dropped after authorities failed to find any evidence at all of ricin at his home. and here's what he said after he left jail. >> i respect president obama. i love my country and would never do anything to pose a threat to him or any other u.s. official. >> reporter: there's also been a concern at another mail facility here at bowli ing air force bas. no suspicious packages but an alarm went off indicating ricin. nothing has been found. they're still doing off-site tests. >> tracie potts, thank you. take a listen to this. it's the sound of a bulletproof white board. and it's on its way to one minnesota school.

now, the high school in cold spring is no stranger to school violence. a decade ago a student shot and killed two classmates. now the school is the first in the state to get bulletproof white boards. teachers and students can write on them just like normal, but they're also made with some of the lightest body armor in the world. and they can be used as weapons, too. >> imagine the gun sticking in the window of a classroom. and you knock the gun out of the hand. it is empowerment. it's a tool. it's something that the teachers finally will have. >> the white board inventor said he made it in response to the shootings in newtown, connecticut. inch nbc meteorologist bill karins is here with the forecast. good morning to you, bill. >> great invention if schools can afford it. >> we'll see how much it costs. >> that will be the big deal. as far as the weather around the country, everyone in the midwest has every right to complain. you had snowstorm after snowstorm. and now winter's grip is just sitting over the top of you. the winds are coming down from

the north. it is cold all through the northern rockies. now, on the coast, the east coast and the west coast, it's actually going to be kind of mild. and look at yesterday. i mentioned yesterday how beautiful a day i was expecting in san francisco. well, it delivered. 76 degrees and sunny. sacramento was 85 degrees and sunny. that's about as good as you get for beautiful spring weather through oregon and no complaints in the pacific northwest with temperatures in the mid to upper 60s. we're going to do it once again today. there are clouds once again that will linger along the california coast, especially southern portions of california. when the sun goes to work, it's going to be a nice day once again. san francisco a little cooler. look how nice, medford at 81. a little taste of early summer. it's like one of those days you want to go take a hike there on mt. hood.

nice weather continues for the foreseeable future in many areas of the west. >> i'm going to mt. hood. see you later. major airport delays have transportation secretary ray lahood calling the sequester a dumb idea. muss, how the rich got richer. and marilyn monroe as you have never seen her before. details in two minutes.

welcome back. at least 70 people are confirmed dead in the collapse of an eight-story building housing several garment factories in bangladesh. rescuers say 600 people have been pulled from the rubble, and they fear more inside. microsoft founder bill gates appears to be in the middle of an international faux pas. he greeted the president of south korea with a handshake, but his other hand, it's in his coat pocket. a big cultural no-no. local media immediately labeled gates rude pointing out a two-hand handshake is proper there. they'll be holding a day of

discussion and debate after wide-ranging student protests. students have expressed anger over the school's response to instances of sexual assault, racism and homophobia on campus. officials are warning the flying public that ground delays could become the norm around u.s. airports all because automatic budget cuts are forcing the furlough of 10% of air traffic controllers. congress has not acted yet to put them back to work, prompting transportation secretary ray lahood to call the sequester, quote, a dumb idea. >> it's a dumb idea. it's not a way that any person would do their own budget. it's a meat ax approach, and it should be changed. and all 20 female members of the democrats, 16 republicdemoc republicans in a private meeting to discuss ways of reaching a deal on the federal budget. also on the menu, alaskan halibut and peach pie. in health news now, a new study from texas christian university showing people will

opt for healthier foods when they are faced with the reality of how long they have to exercise to work that meal off. participants give end calorie counts but those with exercise equivalent chose less of the fat filled burgers, fries and desserts. >> announcer: "early today" health is brought to you by vagisil ph balance wash. we go to cnbc's courtney reagan. good morning. >> good morning, richard. u.s. regulators plan to crack down on short-term payday loans offered by banks because they can often trap consumers in a cycle of debt. they say many lenders make these small-dollar loans without checking whether borrowers can afford to pay them back. the home of the whopper is coming to your home. burger king is expanding home delivery service to chicago, san francisco and l.a. you can order by phone or online. burger king actually already delivers in washington, new york, houston and miami. you're going to have to wait to get a new pair of google

glasses. chairman eric schmidt says the device won't be available to most consumers until next year. google glasses are a wearable smartphone, allowing people to surf the web, take photos and video chat. back to you. >> and they look kind of cool, too. thank you, courtney. just moments ago ford reported better than expected first quarter results as new models boosted pretax profits to its highest level in more than a decade. on the individual earnings front for you, new pew study finds the net worth of the nation's wea h wealthiest shot up nearly 30% to more than $3 million. meanwhile, during the first two years of the economic recovery, the rest of the nation dropped 4% to around $134,000. another big market driver today, apple. it beat earnings estimates but delivered a disappointing sales force cast last night. apple also announced more than $100 billion in stock buybacks and higher dividends through 20125. in new york city today, the launch of the samsung experience

shop which will soon pop up in some 1400 best buy stores, walmart has inked a deal with warner brothers to sell the only tickets to the first screenings of june's "superman" film, "man of steel." speaking of comic book heroes, the storied life and death of marilyn monroe is the subject of a new blue otter comic book going on sale in stores and online. a north carolina woman picked the so-called holy grail of video game finds for $8 at a goodwill store. the 1986 nintendo game called "family fun fitness stadium events" was just one of 200 ever released. it could be worth tens of thousands of dollars. finally, after evian's widely popular babies on roller skates ad went viral in 2009, the bottled water company is tapping the fountain of youth once again for millions of bankable clicks. this time dancing adults are ecstatic to see themselves as babies in a building's reflection. the video has only been on youtube for a few days, and it's already racked up more than 28

million views. look at this. not something you see every day before a major league baseball game. plus, a tale of puppy love bringing a lot of happiness to families no matter how many miles it takes.

it's a special delivery for some extraordinary volunteers. operation roger finds permanent loving homes for rescue dogs. nbc's mark potter has the story for us. >> reporter: amid the rugged beauty of tok, alaska, an important long-distance delivery is about to be made as an anxious family awaits. >> hi, guys. here's shelby. >> look at him. here you go. >> reporter: shelby's journey has taken nine days and covered more than 4,500 miles. thanks to a kind-hearted trucker named david and an animal rescue program known as "operation roger." "operation roger" was born from hurricane katrina after trucker sue weiss began to pray for all the pets who had lost their owners. >> i said, lord, what can i do? i'm just a truck driver. >> reporter: what she did was organize volunteer truckers to transport lost and abused animals to loving homes around

the country. shelby a 5-year-old pekinese was rescued from an abusive home in oklahoma when an alaska family offered to adopt him, operation roger called david who loves dogs and helping people. >> shelby, come on. it's a good way that truck drivers in america can give back to society because, you know, we're not home a lot. >> reporter: well worth the cross-country effort -- >> say cheese. >> cheese. >> reporter: -- to bring shelby home. mark potter, nbc news. turning now to sports, the u.s. justice department is officially filed its lawsuit against disgraced cyclist lance armstrong for the millions of dollars the u.s. postal service use to sponsor his team. the coors field was cleared off the field tuesday to avoid their fourth and fifth snowed-out games in the last week. rocky fans had their cold weather gear on and the braves, b.j. upton, homer in the first inning as atlanta beat colorado 4-3. in the night game b.j. upton

blasted another home run to left field and his brother justin hit a back-to-back homer to right field in a 10-2 win leaving some fans to dance shirrless even in that weather. last pair of brothers to hit back-to-back homers was paul and wayne back in 1938. former major leaguer manny ramirez is playing baseball in taiwan for the eda rhinos. and tuesday he hit his third home run. >> manny! home run! home run! >> they say home run in chinese the same way. just ahead he's back and breaking records. psy's new single is setting the web on fire yet again.

welcome back. a nice simple forecast day in the west, we're looking at sunshine galore out there. now, we are going to see more clouds, the exception being southern portions of california from l.a. to san diego, oceanside, also back towards phoenix and vegas. partly cloudy but still looking beautiful temperaturewise. and i know everyone in the northwest loves these great periods of weather, but you always know it's not going to last for long. your weather changes too much, and for the weekend, unfortunately, we introduce rainy and cloudy and cool so appreciate it now. >> that's it for the year. they're done. >> that's it for the year. looks like korean rapper psy was not a one-hit wonder.

♪ i'm a ♪ i'm a >> i don't know about the song. psy's new song "gentleman." >> it will grow on you. >> it was seen 38 million times in one day breaking the single day record of the 2012 "kony" short film. black eyed musician admits to using a song without permission. it comes from a producer claiming will.i.am stole it. and the star of "pain and gain" missed the opening of his new film. he tweet ad photo from the hospital room to show he's recover says just fine. never has a man in a shower cap looked so scary. >> it looks painted on. it looks photo shopped. >> he's gargantuan. it's almost like you when you take off your jacket. cairns is -- all right. >> i don't like to show off. >> i'm richard lui, and this is "early today," just your first

stop of the day today on your nbc station. >> the gun show.

leading the news this morning in the "the washington post," charges dropped against mississippi man in ricin case as fbi searches second home. a fell magistrate judge had all charges against paul kevin curtis dismissed without prejudice. in "the l.a. times," l.a. now live is $4.2 million settlement fair? during the manhunt for a fugitive ex-cop two women delivering newspapers were mistakenly shot by lapd

officers. here's what we're keeping our eye on this morning. the associated press is the latest victim of a twitter hacking. a bogus tweet said president obama was injured. dow plunged 143 points minutes later. syrian electronic army claimed responsibility. officials now believe the two brothers accused in the boston marathon bombings acted alone. the younger brother still in the hospital told investigators he learned how to build the bomb from an al qaeda magazine online called "inspire." fbi agents are in russia to interview the suspects' parents right now. classes at dartmouth college are closed to focus on fostering debate. received online threats stemming from a friday protest. students decried what they call homophobia, sexual assault and racism on campus. concert goers in argentina were given a different kind of light show last weekend. a meteor exploded in the sky shooting bright light to everything below. astronomers estimate the meteor was about a foot and a half wide and was flying at around 81,000 miles per hour. look at all that light. it's amazing. it seemed very high in the sky. >> we've been getting a lot of these recently.

a guy in connecticut claims a little one fell onto the roof of his business. vice president biden attends a memorial service in massachusetts today. the ceremony for m.i.t. officer sean collier who officials say was killed by the boston marathon suspects. it will be held on the school's cambridge campus. and a senate hearing will be held on alzheimer's. among those testifying, 77-year-old singer glen campbell who was diagnosed with the disease in 2011. a "today" show exclusive. the anchor who was fired for dropping the f-bomb during his first day on air. he is live in the studio. hopefully he'll keep it clean. wouldn't you say he probably needs to do that. >> they should have the bleep button ready. >> just so long as he's not reading the prompter. and lester holt reports on a special "dateline" wednesday at 8:00/7:00 central. keep it here for news, weather, sports and more. i'm richard lui with bill karins. thanks for watching "early today" just the first stop of

the day today on your nbc station. have a great wednesday.

new this morning, police in a number of cities along the coast looking for a car thief. where he was just spotted, next. we're just learning about the bay bridge bolts, including why one expert says more danger could be on the way. >> san jose student jumps into action this morning, being hailed a hero. right now, we'll give you a live look all over san

francisco. how about that? fog in the sky. few lights out there. get ready. it is wednesday, april 24th and this is "today in the bay." it is 4:30, almost 4:31. good morning. i'm jon kelley. >> and i'm laura garcia-cannon. let's check the forecast with rob mayeda, in for christina. good morning. >> good morning. unlike yesterday where we had warm, dry winds, you'll need the jacket and keep it on. highs in the low to mid 60s today, mid 70s in san jose. cooling has arrived and plan on cooler day tomorrow with low clouds possibly getting in the way of your morning commute. mike? >> right now the only thing i'm concerned about getting in way are some of these folks on mission boulevard, the

construction there. folks are able to get off at warren boulevard but not mission from southbound 880. road crews somewhere along that mission stretch. that connection between 880 and 680, just coming off the southbound 680 side, where more construction will block it. that connector a little tough. auto mall parkway a little to the north. south 880 as you approach brokaw, down to one lane as you're passing the brokaw exit. no slowing showing up yet. we're tracking things. i will track that, guys, back to you. >> all right. we'll keep coming back to you. thank you very much. it would be more than a month that the agency discovered more than 32 broken rods on the span and engineers are still trying to figure out a fix. options will be discussed at a bay area toll